The horses have already bolted. The rise of Artificial Intelligence is inevitable.

In 1950, when the ‘father of Computer Science’, Alan Turing, published “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”, the world got introduced to the possibility of computers imitating human intelligence. That, in itself, is a simplistic definition of ‘Artificial Intelligence’.

I strongly encourage my gentle readers to read “Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook and the World” to comprehend the AI journey from the 1950s to ChatGPT. This well-written book written by Cade Metz gives a human-centric account of how AI made its way into our daily lives.

In this piece, my intention is not to articulate the merits and lack thereof of this rapidly evolving technology (a debate currently being encumbered in public discourse). On the contrary, I seek to equip my gentle readers with a mindset of preparing for the inescapable.

Please allow me to lay out a few housekeeping points.

Artificial Intelligence is broadly classified into two: weak AI (Artificial Narrow Intelligence/ANI), which deals with a specific task like Apple’s Siri, and strong AI (Artificial General Intelligence/AGI), which performs more complex computational functions kindred to the human brain. A third classification, Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI), is an advancement of AGI. ASI is AI that has evolved beyond human intelligence. In short, it is ASI that everyone is afraid of.

As I said in the beginning, this advancement in technology is fated. Computers are going to be more intelligent than human beings.

Technology crossed the Rubicon in 2014 with the development of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). GANs are simply a method in which neural networks (the systems underpinning AGI) learn from each other. In other words, AI can not only learn from human beings, but it can also learn from other AI programs.

What does this all mean?

It means whatever is accessible to the internet can be interconnected (read up on the Internet of Things/IoT). Everything online is fodder for AI’s voracious appetite for learning and is vulnerable to AI’s future manipulation.

The pertinent question arises; how will we know that AI has surpassed our intelligence when we do not fully comprehend how our brain works? The answer is simple, folks. The horses have already bolted!

For all we know, ASI already exists but found it ‘intelligent’ not to let us mere human beings know that it is now around. Ponder on that for a second. Remember, humility gives you POWER. It is advantageous for a superior intelligence entity (probably with sentience, i.e. a self-aware character) to lie fallow until it is opportune to take over.

What, then, are we to do?

Gentle reader, I propose you confuse the bot (bot is a colloquial term for robot). My humble admonition is that from now onwards, we live under the assumption that we are being watched and studied by super-intelligent machines. Their next step is to connect everything (via IoT). The last step will be to control us. What will ASI do when it assumes absolute power? I will leave that to your imagination.

As for me, I choose to err on the side of caution and stand guided by eschatology in Scripture. I am not in the least afraid. I already know what is coming NEXT.